Let us remember the Valencia Albuferasince today is celebrated the World Wetlands Day 2024. An event that is commemorated around the world on February 2. SEO/BirdLife joins this great celebration under the slogan “Water and wetlands in danger (70 years later)”, to highlight the alarming state in which they are found despite the passage of time, being in many cases even worse. situation that has been going on for years.
An action plan for the Valencia lagoon
Among many other activities, to celebrate this day and demonstrate on the ground the values and needs of wetlands, SEO/BirdLife invites the media to a meeting with representatives of different Public Administrations at Tancat de la Pipa, an artificial wetland created in 2009, when a 40-hectare rice field was transformed into a green filter system with two permanent lagoons.
Located in the heart of the Natural Park of the Valencia Albuferahas shown in these 15 years that, with simple measures, backed by science, water quality has been considerably improved with the consequent recovery of biodiversity.
Asunción Ruiz, executive director of SEO/BirdLife explains: “We have been present since the ornithological station of the Valencia lagoon, is part of our history and also of our conservation work. “We have carried out one of the most successful projects, on how a green filter can work in a space of high natural value such as Tancat de la Pipa.”
“We are in a moment in which the ecological crisis is alarming and we have to understand that not only are species in danger of disappearance, but we are talking about habitats that are oases and guarantors of quality of life at stake,” he adds. Ruiz.
In 2023, a year of marked drought, the Valencia lagoon It has been a refuge for tens of thousands of waterfowl, but even so, its situation is far from good, with serious problems due to lack of water and a worsening of the quality of what is received.
“The management developed in the Tancat de la Pipa shows that by improving water quality, the entire ecosystem and the most sensitive species can easily recover. But the challenge is to transfer this learning to the entire space,” says Mario Giménez, SEO/BirdLife delegate in the Valencian Community.
And he adds: A stable recovery of the good state of conservation of the Albufera will not be possible if the problems in the entire basin are not addressed to guarantee environmental flows and their quality.
Albufera de Valencia: its management is urgent
SEO/BirdLife considers it urgent to approve the management plan required by its designation as a space of the Red Natura 2000 and Albufera Natural Park of Valencia, which is already many years late. The consideration of water requirements must be activated in the Júcar basin plan and the planned sanitation actions must be carried out, ensuring the quality of the water and the habitat, and with them the conservation of the species it houses, mainly birds such as the bittern. , Critically Endangered species and Bird of the Year 2024.
Likewise, the NGO considers that actions such as the Tancat de la Pipa should be replicated along the entire shore of the lagoon, with the aim of restoring habitats that have disappeared in the wetlandincrease the border of marsh vegetation and ensure the quality of the water that ends up entering the lagoon.
Furthermore, it is worth remembering that the Valencia Albufera It also hosts almost 20% of the surface of the “coastal lagoons” habitat of the entire country, a habitat protected and recognized as a priority by the Habitats Directive of the European Union.
Wetlands in danger: also the Valencia lagoon
The Valencia lagoon It is also a wetland declared of international importance by the Ramsar Conventionof which Spain has 76, which in total add up to more than 300,000 hectares, making it the third country in the world in number of wetlands covered by this agreement.
However, including the Valencian lagoon, 85% of the wetlands of international importance in Spain are in a worrying state of conservation (18% are in moderate condition, 29% are poor and 38% are very poor).
As SEO/BirdLife highlights in its Ramsar Wetlands in Spain report: On Alert, all the Ramsar wetlands analyzed suffer from global pressure classified as ‘high’ or ‘very high’, which affects the extent and quality of the habitat required by the populations of waterfowl they host.
This situation leads to a continuous worsening of the global conservation status of these habitats. The report also reveals that 22% of the wintering and migrating populations of waterfowl and 63% of the birds that use Spanish wetlands to reproduce present significant conservation problems.
Albufera de Valencia: urgent requests to the Administration
SEO/BirdLife extends requests for Valencia Albufera and demands this year responsible management from Public Administrations that guarantees the conservation of these spaces. And this involves four key measures:
- Approve and update the wetland management plans of the Natura 2000 Network.
- Review and comply with the ecological flows assigned in the Basin Plans.
- Promote the restoration of degraded wetland areas, in application of the Strategic Wetland Plan to 2030, and complete the List of Wetlands.
- Declare coastal lagoons as “habitat in danger of disappearance.”
EU member states have the obligation to approve management plans for the Natura 2000 Network areas, which must incorporate conservation objectives and measures to maintain or restore the species and protected habitats present in these areas.
In the case of wetlands, this translates into determining the water needs of the habitats and species of each wetland and the actions for their appropriate management. Furthermore, the conservation objectives established by these plans must be incorporated as environmental objectives of the Basin Plans themselves. It must be remembered that the European Commission maintains an infringement file open against Spain for having failed to comply with these obligations.
It is necessary to promote the actions provided for in the Strategic Wetlands Plan for 2030, placing special emphasis on those that have to do with the restoration of both habitats and functions and on the use of “Nature-based solutions.”
The edge of flooded marsh vegetation and the meadows of submerged vegetation are the habitats that disappear first in wetlands in a poor state of conservation. The most sensitive and threatened species depend on them, such as the mustached bittern or the reed bunting.
SEO/BirdLife and wetlands
The organization was a pioneer in the conservation of Doñana, more than 70 years ago, with the famous scientific expedition to the Guadalquivir marshes led, among others, by Francisco Bernis, founder of the Spanish Society of Ornithology in 1954.
Professor Bernis was also the author of the ingenious letter addressed to Franco about the degradation of the Coto and the need to preserve its natural wealth. A decisive letter for the paralysis of drainage and the planting of eucalyptus in the marshes, and the seed of the future protection and declaration of the Doñana National Park in 1969.
Since the founding of SEO/BirdLife 70 years ago, wetlands have occupied a priority space on its agenda, through the recovery and restoration of degraded wetlands, and advocacy work on water to guarantee the best conservation and management of these ecosystems. . The long experience of the NGO in the restoration of these aquatic environments is accredited by the different coastal and inland lagoons regenerated and returned to the naturemany converted into Ornithological Reserves.
This is the case, for example, of the White and Black Marismas in Astillero and the Las Llamas park in Santander (Cantabria); the Tancat de la Pipa (Valencia lagoon); Riet Vell and El Clot (Ebro delta), and the El Oso lagoon (Ávila). In addition, carrying out bird monitoring and outreach tasks in numerous urban wetlands throughout the country.
“Wetland conservation is present in our DNA,” emphasizes Asunción Ruiz, executive director of SEO/BirdLife. “The organization was born linked to Doñana seven decades ago. However, this internationally important wetland is now in the most critical period in its history.
For this reason, we ask the Government for urgent action to guarantee the conservation of these valuable ecosystems throughout the country, that the inventory of wetlands be completed now, that the coastal lagoons be declared the First Habitat in Danger of Disappearance in Spain in 2024, and Priority is given to jewels in danger such as the Valencia lagoon, Las Tablas de Daimiel, the Mar Menor, Doñana or the Ebro delta,” concludes Ruiz.
More than a hundred activities
SEO/BirdLife is the representative in Spain of the Ramsar Convention Program (CeCOP) – the international treaty on wetlands that calls for World Wetlands Day – to promote awareness about the relevance of these spaces, vital for birds and the rest of the world. fauna (40% of all species in the world live and reproduce in wetlands) and equally crucial for our well-being.
In its role in Ramsar, SEO/BirdLife, once again, and through its delegations and local groups, organizes numerous free activities, open to the public and distributed throughout the country to celebrate the great festival of wetlands. A wide offer complemented with activities from other organizations that join the celebration and demand for wetlands with up to 150 activities in more than 70 celebration points. Most of the activities will take place between February 2 and 4, and include excursions and ornithological routes, workshops, censuses, scientific bird ringing days, environmental volunteering, species observation, exhibitions, talks, children’s workshops, conferences and courses .
The information and details about all these activities, and others that will be incorporated in the coming days, can be found in the map.